Quote Origin: If Our American Way of Life Fails the Child, It Fails Us All

Pearl S. Buck? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: The following statement has been attributed to the prominent U.S. writer Pearl S. Buck:

If our American way of life fails the child, it fails us all.

Would you please help me to find the context of this remark together with a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Pearl S. Buck won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for her best-selling book “The Good Earth”. Subsequently, she was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1965 she published “Children for Adoption” which contained the following passage. Boldface added to excerpts:[1] 1965 (1964 Copyright), Children for Adoption by Pearl S. Buck, Chapter 9: White, Gray or Black Market, Quote Page 193, Random House, New York. (Verified with hardcopy)

The increase in numbers of homeless, unwanted children—a result of the sexual freedom between modern men and women—is attended by a decrease in the number of adopting parents. The predicament must be faced squarely by the professionals. New solutions must be found. If our American way of life fails the child, it fails us all.

Additional details and citations are available in the article on the Medium platform which is located here.

Image Notes: Picture of mother and baby from Rebecca Scholz at Pixabay.  The image has been cropped.

Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Sue Ferrara whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.

References

References
1 1965 (1964 Copyright), Children for Adoption by Pearl S. Buck, Chapter 9: White, Gray or Black Market, Quote Page 193, Random House, New York. (Verified with hardcopy)